About Me

Retired teacher with experience of life outside the classroom.Was, amongst other things, prior to becoming a schoolteacher,a barbers boy, a Woolworth's trainee,a windowdresser,an office clerk, a farm labourer and a youth leader.Oh, and for all of four hours a Betterware salesman.

Saturday, 11 December 2010

I'm Walking Backwards For Christmas.

The visiting list ominously lessens. Presumably my posts have become increasingly boring. Plus I lay awake thinking 'Have I anything else to say.' An empty head, a blank page. Then, hey presto, the snow vanished overnight and the postman reappeared. Plus my new 'machine' arrived. All's well with the world.

Now I'm the world's most 'nontechnical' man. I have no Mobile phone (how on earth do they carry the miles of cable around) and I've only recently mastered the light switch. This technology thing creeps on us, surreptitious, like fog on moorland, and before you now it, you're surrounded, lost and ever crying out for help. Even silly old Grumpy cannot help but get involved.

I have a 'digital voice recorder'. An Olympus DS-50, or is it a 40 or a 30. Old tape recorders had reels and were so big you fell over them in the dark. This DS whatever is so small (fits in a shirt pocket) that I've only just re-found it after twelve months of searching and having bought a replacement. ( I'd put it in a wooden wine box for save keeping.) Senility, tell me about it!

In a rash moment I bought a 'USB Turntable' that will convert my vinyl records to my MP3 player and thence to my Juke box. Or at least it will when my wife (note my wife not me) gets the hang of the 'Audacity Software' 'USB Audio CODEC' and 'additional software lame_enc.dll0'. WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT!

My new cameras wonderful. A Canon S95, referred to in one revue as the best compact camera in the world. I'm determined to master it but oh boy, don't they assume that everyone in the world is a young wizz kid, IQ of 140 who 'did computers etc' at school as a matter of course. Me, reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic plus learning about the British Empire was my lot. So learning what C, M, AV, Tv, P and AUTO mean doesn't come easy. As for talking about, 'default settings' again WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT!

The list goes on, you get the message. Then it arrived. My eko-mania paper log maker. Simplicity itself, 'it does what it says on the box.' and it took even me only five minutes to work out how to operate it. Soak newspaper, junk mail etc for a day or two, put it in the 'machine, use some 'elbow grease'. Dry the 'bricks'out, (can take days so best stock up in summer) and 'Bobs your uncle', briquettes for my wood burner, very cheap and environmentally sound I'm assured. Messy, wet, but extremely satisfying; and practice will make perfect. I remember making briquettes from coal and cement in the past, not unlike the way my newest toy works. Hence the title of this post. Briquettes partly made out of cement don't burn too well by the way. But briquette making with Grannie looking on whilst she knitted socks, dish clothes and the odd balaclava (always using grey wool) was a way of life fondly remembered. (I still have the Bakelite ball in which you put wool in my 'museum'.) Does anyone knit nowadays.) I do not yearn for the past but it definitely had its moments.

Do you have memories of 'chores or pastimes' that have long since gone. Have any stayed or perhaps returned. And are there any parts of the past that would enjoy a revival.

33 comments:

Funny you should mention USB turntables - I have just bought the very same. :)It is easy to use Ken, the only drawback I found is, that it is a rather slow process. You have to play every LP at LP speed! So two 25 minute sides takes you nearly an hour to record. An ideal way of passing the time when you are snowed in, I suppose.

Technology puzzles me...either there are no instructions...apart from the one telling you not to put a baby's head in the plastic bag...or they might as well be in double dutch for all the sense they make to me...

My job as a child, well, one of them, was cleaning and grating the suet for the Christmas puddings and mince pies.

You have an MP3 player? Gosh, I'm impressed. But I do know what DEFAULT means or, as some people call it, factory settings. I laughed through most of your post, Ken, so I don't think you can describe it as boring.

What I remember was a spring ritual my mom did every year. She got out the Spic 'n Span and we preceded to wash every wall in the house. Including baseboards and in the bathrooms we did the ceilings as well!! The Spic 'n Span would clean off anything and it took layers of skin off your hands as well. Then, while we washed...all the draperies were in the washing machine...getting their cleaning.Nowadays no one that I know of does this anymore...and there is no Spic 'n Span on the market shelves. Ha!Do I miss this....ahhhh...NO!!HugsSueAnn

Hello Ken, thanks for your comment, I often follow Uncle Bernard over to see what you are up to. You might be surprised to hear that knitting is the new rock and roll and has become extremely popular again, as have many other hand crafts. I was brought up in a family where everything we needed was made, passed down or repaired and improvised and it has stood me in good stead.

I refuse to carry a mobile phone, too - all my kids have one, I can reach them if I want to - emphasise on IF (grin). Both Twitter and Facebook scares the bejesus out of me, I'm simply not cut out for these hi-tech malarkies! I do like the idea of this brickette thingie of yours, though - it sounds oddly comforting in a laborious type of way, to create your own fuel out of what is usually thrown out.

My old Da used to darn his own socks, nobody does that anymore either, do they?

oh man..you sound like me..I can take out a water pump in my truck, rebuild it and put it back, but can't figure out how to work my cell phone(which I only have because it's free with 250 free minutes a month) or thread the bobbin on my now(4 year old) sewing machine because it doesn't have a carburetor..thanks for stopping by and saying howdy..I'll blog roll you and stop by and see what your into..js

In answer to your question, does anyone knit these days.... yes. And you are not alone in being a technophobe... what annoys me is why we have to name everything. Why can't someone who just doesn't like modern technology be called an old fart?Thanks for popping into my little blog, don't know from whence you came, possibly via Mark, but always nice to see a new face, yes, even a grumpy old face like yours!Goodness, hope you have a sense of humour......